Ceasefire is at risk, Sharon told

The Palestinian government said yesterday that Ariel Sharon had jeopardised last month's ceasefire by rejecting President Bush's plea to stop building his security fence through the West Bank.

The information minister, Nabil Amr, said the Israeli prime minister had given "no single positive sign at all: he is not stopping the settlements and he is going on with the wall".

Mr Bush left a meeting with the Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, last week saying the fence was a problem, but after seeing Mr Sharon at the White House on Tuesday he said merely that he had urged him to "carefully consider all the consequences".

Mr Sharon said work would continue.

Foreign diplomats say a complete halt was never on the cards and Mr Sharon had given ground before leaving for Washington by delaying plans for it to encircle big Jewish settlements deep inside the West Bank.

"Bush has never said there should not be a security fence," one said. "What has been made clear to the Israelis is that it should not be used to expropriate Palestinian land or to try and impose borders before final status talks.

"Washington recognises that the parts of the fence that are already up are not going to suddenly come down. But I believe Sharon now understands that there are limits to how far into Palestinian territory he can take this fence and that Israel cannot simply annex land that falls the wrong side."